Some years back, manufacturers of shopping carts commenced including on their carts a tray underneath a conventional basket of a cart. The tray is typically used to hold large items which are too bulky or heavy to be placed in the basket along with other, and typically smaller, objects. This originally seemed like a good idea as the user of a cart, the customer of a business establishment, would have more hauling space to accommodate purchases and would tend to add more items to his purchases. However, in the past few years, it was discovered that in a significant percentage of instances, items placed on the lower tray were not observed by checkout attendants and were not paid for. In fact, in one survey it was found that this figure was approximately 85%.
In any event, in recognition of the losses incurred, there has been a decline in the employment of carts with lower shelves as the only known feasible way of combating this problem. This, of course, has been done at the expense of some decrease in sales. Unfortunately, the recognition of the problem has not, to date, brought forth a solution. True, there have been some attempts to solve it by some form of signalling system, but there has been no acceptable solution determined. Reese U.S. Pat. No. 3,263,774 expressly recognizes the problem and proposes that a checkout attendant be required to lean over the counter and thus be in a position to observe whether an object is on the tray before being able to complete the customer transaction. This requirement is enforced by a switch on the side of the counter adjacent to a cart which controls the cash register operation and which can only be reached if a checkout attendant leans over the cart. While a tall checkout attendant with a long reach might not have any difficulty with such an arrangement, many could not, at least comfortably, use such a system. To the knowledge of the applicant, the difficulties of the system overcome its advantages, and its use on any scale was not continued.
Thus, it is the object of this invention to provide an automatically operable system which requires no maneuvering by the attendant to use it, is effective, and is available at a moderate cost.